Plans to close two West Lothian hospitals as centres of elderly respite care have been put on hold.
West Lothian councillors serving on the Integration Joint Board forced a rare vote after a lengthy debate this week, voicing concerns over lack of capital funding money to carry through the proposed redesign of elderly care services.
The decision split the IJB 4-4 between councillors and other voting members.
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The IJB is a joint board of NHS Lothian and West Lothian council officers which is responsible for commissioning adult health and social care services and overseeing the delivery of these services in West Lothian.
Officers produced plans aimed to cut a £17m budget deficit which proposed one site to provide respite and dementia care for the elderly at a campus base around the Craigmair care home and Maple Villa, a dementia care unit, in Larch Grove Livingston.
The would see the closure of Tippethill Hospital, Armadale, as a community hospital and its two wards - the Rosebery ward for dementia care for women and the Bailie ward for elderly respite care - relocated to Livingston.
The Bailie ward had already moved from St Michael’s Hospital in Linlithgow two years ago, and that hospital has been shuttered on a temporary basis since the Covid pandemic. The Linlithgow hospital would close permanently under the new plans.
Officers argued that provision on one site made economic sense as well as providing better care provision. A new facility would also make more beds available for respite care - 30 as opposed to 25.
The development of care provided to the elderly at home has reduced the demand for hospital respite care beds, officers explained in reports.
However, Councillor Andrew McGuire, Labour, expressed concerns that the plans had not addressed capital funding for work that would be needed at the Livingston site and also worried that councillors would be closing two community hospitals without really knowing what long term demand would be. His amendment called for more information.
Councillor McGuire told the meeting: “We're being asked to close permanently two community hospitals when we don’t really have a full enough understanding, accepting that’s not the IJB responsibility, in terms of deciding capital costs. But I feel we’ve not got enough information about the certainty that capital costs can be provided to do the work at Craigmair.
"If required it would be beneficial for board members to visit these facilities so that we can make better informed decisions."
Linlithgow Councillor, Tom Conn seconding his colleague's amendment, said: “I think if we haven't visited the sites to see exactly the situation we have concerns about, and the community have concerns about,then I think we are doing a great public disservice in that respect.
He suggested that members had been provided with plenty of data on the proposals from the IJB side but that the petition to save St Michael's, signed by 2,000 people, seemed to have been given no weight.
“I think the site at St Michael’s hospital is something that we should be investing in rather than closing. It has been a management decision not to invest. From the public perception, just to make a decision without acquainting ourselves with the sites themselves, I think it’s remote . I think that's the feeling from the folk who have expressed a contrary view to the IJB.”
Board member George Gordon echoed earlier comments about making decisions to end the uncertainties that have built up for elderly care staff at the sites. He said he was sympathetic to the amendment but added: “I feel we need to get on with the job and give our own staff the right direction.”
The three councillors on the IJB, Labour’s Councilor McGuire and Tom Conn and Conservative Damian Doran-Timson, backed the McGuire amendment. To that tally they added the “ ghost” vote of the current vacant chair of the fourth council member to match the votes of the other voting members.
IJB chair Bill McQueen does not have a casting vote on the board . He instead proposed a meeting with Councillor McGuire and officers and the chief executives to find a solution.
The decision may come back at the next meeting of the IJB in mid August.
